1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system where a person receives information indirectly from a conversation between client machines which are realized using a household electrical appliance or the like, a phonetic-sound providing system which extracts information on a person's response to a conversation between the client machines to collect individual preference information, and its method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional information displaying system with a data delaying function is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-348095 specification (hereinafter, referred to as Publication 1). The system described in Publication 1 is an information displaying system in which a server unit receives information on the market price from a center unit and delays transmitting, to a client machine, the information which meets a specific requirement among the received pieces of information, until a specific time. This is an information providing system in which among the pieces of market-price information received from the server unit, a display of the information whose real time does not need displaying is put off until a specific time. This helps lower a rate for information and running costs.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-243284 specification discloses an interest and preference analyzing system and a market-research method, in which on the Internet, information on a user's interest and preference is collected one after another for researches on the market.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-188787 specification discloses a conversation processing unit and a conversation processing method, in which a user is provided with a pleasant natural conversation, using a computer.
The configuration of the system described in Publication 1 will be described with reference to FIG. 1. This information displaying system is configured by a server unit 1 which receives data from a center unit (not shown) and transmits it over a LAN, and a plurality of client machines 2 which are connected to the server unit 1 via the LAN and receive and display the data transmitted from the server unit 1. Herein, the server unit 1 manages delayed-display information, i.e., whether each piece of data transmitted from the center unit is dealt with as a real-time display or as a delayed display. It provides this delayed-display information to an information providing company.
The server unit 1 is made up of: a reception portion 11 which receives data through a communication circuit from the center unit; a control portion 12 which divides the transmitted data into real-time display data and delayed display data and outputs them; a delay portion 13 which stocks the delayed display data for a certain period of time and outputs it; a stock portion 14 which stocks data to be transmitted; and a transmission portion 15 which transmits the data stocked in the stock portion 14.
Next, an operation of the system described in Publication 1 will be described. The control portion 12 divides the transmitted data into real-time display data and delayed display data, which are to be displayed in the client machine 2. It memorizes, in its memory area such as a work memory, a delay condition which is a criterion for identifying the delayed display data. Specifically, if the control portion 12 inputs the data received in the reception portion 11, it judges whether or not the data is data which meets the delay condition (or the delayed display data). If it is the delayed display data, the control portion 12 outputs it to the delay portion 13. On the other hand, if it is not the delayed display data, it outputs the data to the stock portion 14. The delay condition prescribes the delayed display data, and herein, a specific exchange is set as the delayed display data. Hence, the display of data which includes the exchange is delayed, but the other pieces of data are displayed at a real time.
A delay period of time is predetermined, which shows the time until which the display is delayed of the delayed display data to be inputted in the stock portion 14. According to an input on a user's delay condition and delay period of time from an operation portion (not shown), the delay condition and delay period of time may be memorized in the control portion 12. In that case, the delay portion 13 is operated after the delay period of time has passed which is set in the control portion 12. A user can set the delay condition and delay time at the user's option in the server unit 1, enabling the user to meet his own needs and delay a display. The time during which the stock portion 14 holds the delayed display data is a delay time which is predetermined by an operation from the operation portion. It is usually set to a time that would not take any information rates charged by an exchange (e.g., 20 minutes in this system).
In addition, the server unit 1 manages delayed-display information, i.e., whether each piece of data is real-time display data or delayed display data. It provides this information to an information providing company.
In an information displaying unit according to another embodiment of Publication 1, a server unit is united with a client machine. The server unit itself reproduces data received from a communication circuit and displays an image. Herein, the server unit is made up of a reception portion, a control portion, a delay portion, a stock portion and a display portion. The display portion is provided, instead of the transmission portion 15 of the information displaying system shown in FIG. 1. In addition, the server unit and the client machine are not connected via the LAN, which is different from the above described server unit 1. The control portion allows the delay condition and delay period of time to correspond to each user name (or an identification number for each user), and then, it memorizes them. This enables a display to be delayed according to the user. The delay condition is memorized in the control portion of the information displaying unit which makes a delayed display according to the user.
Either of the above described information displaying system and unit is characterized by delaying specific predetermined data for a certain period of time and displaying it. In other words, in the information displaying unit according to the above described prior art, received information on company shares or the like is sent to the client machine after a predetermined time (e.g., a delay time of 20 minutes) has passed. This enables a user to be exempted from information on an exchange in his use of the service. Accordingly, in the conventional information displaying unit, the delay time is fixed, and thus, a judgment has only been made whether it should be delayed when transmitted.
Thus, in the conventional information displaying system, the server unit could not transmit, to each of the plurality of client machines, a conversation file whose contents are voices which make up a conversation, and then, the plurality of client machines could not reproduce the received conversation file so that the plurality of client machines could have a conversation or the like with each other.
In other words, the conversation files transmitted to the plurality of client machines differ in reproduction time from each other. Therefore, it is essential to coordinate the reproduction timing of the conversation files so that the conversation files can be reproduced in the timing when the client machines have a conversation. In such a conventional information displaying system in which processing is conducted for a fixed delay time, it has been impossible to reproduce the received conversation file so that the plurality of client machines can have a conversation or the like with each other.
Especially, if each client machine has a different ghost so that a phonetic sound which has a different intonation can be reproduced, the time when the conversation file is reproduced in each client machine is different, even though it has the same contents. Therefore, if the reproduction timing of the conversation files is coordinated using a predetermined delay time in the conventional way, the conversation files cannot be reproduced so that a conversation is formed in good timing. Herein, the “ghost” is data on a character including a fictitious character. For example, “SHIORI” or the like is a typical code name of the ghost. A program which is the core of a client machine loaded with the ghost is called a “main body”. It conducts processing of a script used for describing the source data of a sentence which is displayed in a “balloon” and also conducts something else. Herein, the “balloon” is a space for displaying a character's lines which are displayed on a display portion of equipment. As a typical code name of the “main body”, for example, there are “something”, etc.
The prior arts have the function of providing information to a user, but they don't have functions, such as taking a following action based on the user's response to the provided information, or allowing each client machine to hold the background of a conversation in common over a network and reproducing a conversation file as if ghosts are having the conversation with each other.
Furthermore, if a phonetic-sound information is produced synchronously with picture-image information, the phonetic-sound information had to be reproduced by coordinating its reproduction timing and the reproduction timing of the picture-image information. According to the above described prior arts, information is merely uniformly displayed, in other words, those prior arts do not provide methods such as displaying information synchronously with the picture-image information.
Furthermore, according to the above described prior arts, information is only provided, in other words, the prior arts do not show a system which provides information in consideration of user feedback for the provided information.